16th July

The trickle of early autumn passage continued, with singles of Yellow-legged Gull off the Bill and Green Sandpiper at Ferrybridge being the best of the day's new arrivals. Another 123 Common Scoter passed through off the Bill, where a Balearic Shearwater was lingering for a while, but the only report of note from the land there was of a single Common Sandpiper. A Yellow Wagtail was at Barleycrates Lane and more variety from Ferrybridge included 20 Dunlin, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Common Terns and a Common Sandpiper.The handful of immigrants/strays caught overnight in the Obs garden moth-traps included 3 Silver Y, 2 Mottled Marble and singles of European Corn-borer, Buff Footman and Dark Sword Grass.

...we were surprised that this apparent first-summer bird didn't look quite as scabby in Pete's photos as some birds of this age that we've had a good view of before, in particular some of the outer primaries (which presumably ought to be a uniform set of worn juvenile feathers) weren't as dark as we'd have expected; our knowledge of tern moult is pretty minimal but perhaps the suggestion of more than one generation of feathers there might hint at it being older than a first-summer?

And thanks to Ken Dolbear for another nice series of butterfly photos - Small Skipper, Chalkhill Blue and Common Blues - from north of Rufus Castle: